The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-01-20
GET OUT OF THE CITY.
SUCH rs THE ADVICE OF THE POET
OFTHE SIERRAS.

Mexico.
Get out of the cities and stay out of the
cities. The cities of the United States are
too big entirely. l mean to say that our
population in the cities is fearfully dis
proportionate to our population in the
country. To say nothing about the cold,
clear truth that neither genius nor great
judgment ever hourished in city with
out first drawing its milk from the c0un-
try. I beg you to compare England's
country population with her city pOpula-
ton, and then ours. Take France if you
like it better, or Germany. You will be
startled. But l have neither space nor
disposition to debate or cry out against
this cowardly disposition to hide away in
the commercial, pork packing, cities If
America. But l viii say this of New
York, a city know fairly well from some
years of residence there: never saw such
ignorant people anywhere on earth as the
people of New York. Yes, they read. But
what do they read? The papers. And
the papers they read are the New York
papers. They simply read of themselves
their own sins, their own foLlies, their
own weary and tireless round and repeti-
ton of crimes, set and served as break
fast dish by the brilliant men of the pens.
Get out OF that place and stay out of it.
country, into the lifted hills if you can.
1t is only little distance to the glorious
green and vine clad hills of the Carolinas.
Send some one of your number down there
to see those fruitful and healthful hills,
and my word for it you will not willingly
spend all your life inside the line of folly
which makes up life in a great city. Get
out of those places with your children. No
English gentleman who can afford it will
leave his children to the follies and the
sins of city. No wise man will, of
whatever land. And so it is with a warm
heart l should like to respond to this cry
which appeals to me from the cities for
homes and in Ormation about homes in
the west.
Frankly, then, l would first say go
down into the pleasant mountains of the
Carolinas first, because that is close by.
Get a bit of land there if you like it. Get
it now. 1t will never be cheaper than it
is now. Next year it may be double its
present price. At least, inquire there
rather than of me. Do you know that
nearly all our grapes in the eastern states,
as well as elsewhere, came from the Caro-
inas long ago? Do you know that the
medical herbs of the Carolinas took the
worlds prize in Paris? Do you know
that these silent and voiceless states
have given the world the only
new gem that has been named
since Christ was born? Go down and look
at these states. They are close by, and no
wild beast or wild man will dispute your
path. Go to Cherokee county. You will
find gold there. You will find plenty of
Cherokee Indians there still. have seen
at one time at least twenty free-born
daughters Of these brave people standing
in the water to the knees washing for
gold. Go down there and see these lands
first.
If you do not like it there, and can af-
ford to come to the Sierras why come
here and companion with the peaks. Only
get out of the cities. l repeat it for your
own good, for the good of the nation, get
out of the city and stay out of the city.
But don't come to California with the
idea that you can be idle. There are too
many here who are possessed with that
notion already.
If you want u great future to be won
with great enterprise, go to Arizona and
settle on the broad fields of grass and take
your chances on finding water some |
where down in the earth. l would say
the same thing of New Mexico. And l |
advise either of those territories before |
California, simply because they are closer |
at your hand-the very same reason for |
urging the Carolinas on your attention |
before other places.
Let me say this, as a traveller and man
who loves Mother Earth and makes him
self familiar with her: All lands are more
alike than you imagine. And wherever
nan has set his foot and found the land
0f milk and honey he has remained The
honey is in the possession of the other
nan all the time, wherever you may
,raveL Goodness! didn't we go through
Ill this when hunting for gold here
ong ago? How many an old miner will
urn to you now and testify that if he
'nIy had staid where he was in some
mountain gulch, with pure air, pleasant
he would have, all in good
lme, had as much gold as he could carry
But no; it was always a little further
n Oftentime it was far, far way. Now
was Owens river, away in the south:
0W 1t was Frazer river, far in the north:
ct either place, as a rule, no better than
he nearest little guich to our cabin door
o, III settling, decide what YOU want to
o. And decide first this: That no man
AS any right to stay in a city unless he Is
ound by his duties to stay there. The
lean and selfish desire to stay in CITY
or pleasure Is about rs low a desire as |
an think of. Indeed, the selfish pursuit
pleasure anywhere, or of any kind,
lerely for pleasures sake, is unworthy
any man. The pursuit of pleasure is a.
romans pursuit; and a very weak order
women at that.
As said before, if it is big money you
rant, and big work, large-brained enter
rise, take possession of Arizona There
re no Indians there, as a rule The news
aper must have lis Indian story every
eek. But there are no Indians to trouble
GU there. l am almost in sight of Capt.
ack S old lava beds here. And down at
ne bottom of the beds are settlers who
ave been there entirely undisturbed for
quarter of a century.
Go to Arizona if you like. Leave your
uns and take your plows. spent week
OWN there, as you all know. last spring,
hen the Indian stories were fulLsize,
id rode far and wide looking at the
nds. And always rode alone, and, of
urSe, unarmed.
But if you are leaving the city in search ;
health simply, come here. Come here !
III settle OH a hill 50 steep that a bear :
n knock you half way to the bottom of
in the first round. And my word for it
e work of climbing it in this sweet air,
til these white trout streams all about
u, will cure you of almost any malady e
fore the year is over. But you will not n